"Customers make 500% time savings on initial projects"

eProcurement specialist Trade Interchange, today launched a new SIM - Supplier Information Management system that enables procurement professionals to manage and maintain their supplier relationships simply and cost-effectively. It is the first company to offer SIM in a variety of self-service packages.

According to AMR Research, companies that handle their supplier relations manually spend up to eight times more on this than companies that employ technology like SIM. Procure4, a supply chain management consultancy, is a beta customer of the system. Jeremy Bowley, Project Leader at Procure4, commented, “Trade Interchange’s SIM has helped us to deliver best practice in procurement by keeping our costs down and by providing a more efficient process. When we first used it we reduced the time spent on a project from 3 weeks to 3 days and it led to a better deal.”

SIM enables organisations to assess and approve suppliers based on accurate and complete information. This improves efficiency and dramatically cuts costs in the procurement process. It also reduces risk exposure by helping to ensure supplier compliance and enables the sharing of information across the organisation, avoiding duplication.

Simon Brake, CEO of Trade Interchange said: “Our SIM system revolutionises the way procurement professionals work. It gives organisations a complete picture of their suppliers, providing instant access to their details in real-time. By handing over the responsibility for the accuracy of the data to suppliers, the system vastly increases the efficiency of data management. This not only saves a great deal of time and resource, it also results in happier suppliers and better deals in the long run.”

Using SIM, suppliers can simply and quickly maintain details of their organisation, including background information, contacts, capabilities and accreditation, online. Automatic reminders ensure suppliers keep their records up to date.

SIM is available in four different versions: free Trial, Professional, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus. Brake continued, “We have chosen to offer distinct SIM versions as we are aware that companies have varying requirements. There is no point in paying for a bells-and-whistles package when you don’t require all the functionality it offers. Equally for companies that have outgrown the SIM Professional version, our flexible on-demand model means that it is easy to upgrade to SIM Enterprise.”

SIM is based on secure cloud-computing architecture and consequently has no impact on your organisation’s IT footprint or existing infrastructure and is very simple and quick to install.